


Fair Play

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: DameRey, F/M, Fluff, Humor, JediPilot, Post TLJ, Rey is spicy, Snowed In, boring space chores, poe isn’t as slick as he lets on, poe x rey, the lore is not strong with this one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-02 11:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16304528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Sure, she's in the frigid tundra, three-hundred and fifty or so klicks from the rest of the rebellion. Sure, her mittens are too big and terrible for doing complex mechanical work. Sure, she brought this all on the both of them by goofing off during an early morning meeting.But would Rey say she at all regretted nailing Poe in the forehead with a balled up piece of paper?Not a chance. Besides, her smile quotient seriously spikes whenever he's around her and that can't be a bad thing, can it?--Or 'Stuck in the Middle (of a terribly inconvenient snowstorm) With You: a damerey week tale by me, an absolute goblin'





	1. Touché

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the guilty pleasure dome
> 
> please look at http://damereyconnection.tumblr.com/ if you arent already for your juicy damerey fix

The hour was early. A small handful of rebels, slump-shouldered and pillow-haired, gathered in the engineering break room around a man standing near a flickering holo-display of a slowly revolving rhombus - a placeholder image until something useful needed to be displayed. Steam, always pouring out of the faulty radiators, diffused under the harsh, white shafts of light cast down on the cramped common space.

“...four-hundred and fifty yards of standard fourteen millimeter cable, one-hundred and seven yards of non-standard, ribbon cord- adaptable but please, please don’t try to make alterations without speaking with the supervising engineer. I’m serious, guys, this is for your safety, okay? I don’t like to always be _that guy_ but…”

Rey’s eyes fluttered as she struggled to maintain control over her consciousness. She gripped her pencil tightly and forced herself to focus on something- _anything_ as long as she didn’t pass out. Shaking her head, she returned to defacing a page of her journal with sprawling, abstract patterns and shapes. She rested her head in her hand, uncaring how squished her cheek was against her palm as her pencil went round and round.

Thankfully, she had scored a seat at the end of a small, caf-stained table that was far from the center of attention as a higher ranking mechanic recited  a manifest of every crucial engineering resource they had at their disposal. On top of the riveting subject matter, his voice was so monotone and droning, she wondered if he wasn’t going to put himself to sleep.

(Although earlier, there was a particularly thrilling cliff-hanger over the question of whether or not they had enough power calibrators to handle an emergency situation. Spoiler alert: Of course they didn’t. They never seemed to have enough of anything they really needed.)

The engineer soldiered through his list: “We still have at least seven kilograms of solder left but remember, people, we ran out of the lead-free stuff weeks ago so, y’know, don’t huff the fumes, I guess...”

The claustrophobia-inducing, subterranean outpost was slowly starting to feel familiar. Rey cast her gaze to every dark corner of the room. The long abandoned rebel base had only been their home for little under a month but it was fast becoming a surprisingly functional base of operations for recovering their numbers.  

Thank the stars but there was _always_ some long-abandoned rebel base.

It wasn’t pretty by any means. Most everything was ancient and rusted to bits but if there was one thing the Rebellion had always been champions at, it was pivoting.

Also hope and standing up for freedom and stuff. Sentiments like that looked better on recruitment posters. But it was improvisation and adaptability that kept their heads above water and, unfortunately, terminally boring meetings like this one were of critical importance to their performance as an organization.

“Now to the matter of getting the long-range comms online…”

Rey sighed, her eyelids drooping. If only she could escape and sneak off to the hangar. At the thought, her eyes flicked up to the person at the far end of the rectangular table. She immediately had to suppress a snort, her shoulders shaking with the effort.

There was Poe Dameron in the middle of an epic nod session. She watched as his sleepy head slowly slipped out of his hand until it fell, nearly smacking into the table before he jerked it back up again. The poor, exhausted pilot didn’t notice her, running his hands over his face and through his hair as he gave a shifty look to his left and right to see if anyone caught him dozing off.

Not that anyone would hold it against the Commander. They had all been working tirelessly since they made planetfall, Poe Dameron more than most.

She secretly watched him out of the corner of her eye as he cleared his throat and sat determinedly upright in his chair, arms crossed tightly against his chest. However, before very long, he was slumping over, shoulders rising and falling with a rhythm of restful sleep.

“We’re having issues pinging the comsat from here - storms are interfering with our signal. Not to mention our array is a relic. There’s an outpost about a day’s journey from here by way of snowskimmer. We’re hoping the receiver is in good shape- good enough to patch a signal through. Need a volunteer to cross the tundra…”

Feeling a sudden streak of childishness - a new trait she was starting to pick up from hanging around Finn and Poe - Rey tore out the page of her journal which she had covered with doodles, taking her time and making little sound. Inconspicuously, she sat up straight and started to ball the paper up under the table, pretending to be engaged in the meeting. When she was satisfied with the shape and density of it, she pressed her lips together, glancing briefly at her target and - quick as a flash - chucked it across the table where it bounced right off of Poe Dameron’s forehead.

He jolted up in his chair, reflexively put his arms in front of him for protection. The sound he made was a cross between a sleepy grunt and a yelp of surprise, and then a crowded together repetition of the word ‘what’ until he slowly realized the entire room was looking at him. Rey sunk into her chair, half sheepish, half thrilled.

“Commander?” The chief engineer craned his neck to look over the heads of the rest of the attending rebellion members. “Are you sure you don’t already have too much on your plate?”

Poe looked dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape. He started to shake his head. “Oh, no. Sorry, I was just-”

“Although, I must say, it is inspiring to see one of our leaders volunteering for the less glamorous work.”

The engineer sounded fond and inspired.

The starpilot’s eyes settled on Rey, then back on the rest of the room, then back to Rey. They narrowed at her very deliberately. Of course he knew it was her, she couldn’t hold a poker face to save her life.

Poe sighed and bit his lip.

“S’no problem,” he said, trying to hide the distinct sound of _freshly awoken from a nap_ in his voice. “I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty and this, uh- the _mission_ to, y’know,” he flourished a hand near his brow.

“...To fix the communication array,” the engineer supplied.

“Yes, to fix the array,” he said, smiling with false cordiality, pointing every word at Rey who only looked more and more like the cat who got the canary. “Get it knocked out in an afternoon.”

The chief engineer laughed as if Poe had cracked a hilarious joke. He removed his spectacles to wipe a tear from his eyes.

“I’ll see to it that you’re well supplied for the long journey to Vega Outpost. Food, warm clothing, tools. Your BB unit would come in useful as we anticipate some repairs need to be made.”

At the words _Vega_ and _Outpost_ , Poe’s expression fell to pure perplexity. Rey couldn’t blame him. One minute he was snoozing during an early morning meeting, the next he was signed up for a tedious and difficult mission. The guilt would probably start to set in after she finished relishing how perfectly her bit of mischief turned out. He glanced at her and the corner of his mouth twitched.

“Actually,” Poe said chin proudly tipping upward, “Beebs isn’t a big fan of the cold. Doesn’t get much traction in the snow.”

Rey’s mouth dropped open.

_He wouldn’t._

Poe nodded slightly at her, his smirk turning more and more devious. Almost as if to say: _Oh yes, I absolutely would._

“Rey, I understand you’re a capable mechanic.” Poe turned to her, tone laced with mock curiosity, his fingers curling under his chin. She nodded slowly.

Sarcastic ass. He knew damn good and well she was one of the best in the tri-system area. Still, Rey couldn’t fight a small mirthful smile at how he’d managed to turn this on her.

Poe addressed the engineer. “Do we have an extra skimmer for my friend, Rey, here?”

The bespectacled man nodded.

Rey licked her bottom lip, preparing to argue, “but that’s-”

Poe raised his eyebrows at her. She surveyed the room. Several sets of rebel eyes watched her expectantly.

“ _That’s_ ,” she continued, gritting her teeth, “ _a great idea_.”

“Welcome aboard,” he said, satisfied with his petty revenge. “Partner.”

“Commander,” she replied. _Touché._

If Rey were being honest, she was actually not that mad at the idea of getting out. If she were being _painfully_ honest, she didn’t half mind the company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fluff imminent
> 
> thanks for reading!


	2. Cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> too long and late submission for the Damerey Week prompt - COLD - i got freaked out a made a bunch of last minute changes lol enjoy

“Why can’t we just fly there?” Rey asked Poe just before they set off.

“Couple things. First, the storms,” he enunciated over his shoulder as he secured his supplies to the front of his snowskimmer. “They won’t agree with the instrumentation aboard the Millennium Falcon. And they’re ten times nastier this time of year.”

“So instead of flying there because, _that_ would be dangerous,” she said, crossing her arms as she watched him, “we’re going to ride these rusted out _sleds_ all the way there. Am I understanding that correctly?”

“Well,” he said, straining a little as he bent over to ratchet the straps around his pack tighter, “if we could even _find_ Vega with the storms playing havoc on the Falcon’s systems, we wouldn’t have anywhere to put her - no hangar.”

“Right,” she said, feeling reproached although Poe didn’t seem to mind explaining. A foggy memory of their chief engineer describing ‘ _hailstones as big as your head_ ’ suddenly came to the surface. Rey could not shake the feeling she had been spending too much time poring over her Jedi texts and not enough time paying attention to what was happening on the planet she was currently inhabiting.

“Hey,” he said turning to face her, clapping a reassuring hand on her shoulder, “where’s that sense of adventure?”

Poe’s smile was the sort that just sat there unabashedly. Free from insecurity and free for anyone he met. It was a reassuring thing, his smile.

“Besides, you’re the one who got us into this mess. Here.” He pressed something soft to the touch, like suede, into her hands. She turned the bundle over in her hands and snorted.

Mittens.

By the time she finished outfitting herself in her cold weather gear, the entire ensemble reminded her of something she might wear on Jakku only much more restrictive and...puffy.

But this? This was _nothing_ like Jakku.

The morning they set out, the sun rose with confidence, burning away the storm clouds and giving them both a wondrous view of the stark blue sky and featureless, icy planetscape. It didn’t last. By afternoon, jagged gray clouds brought the storm. Their beige, fur-lined coats held up against the cold, but the white-out posed an even greater danger than the temperature.

She hated how the scarf over her nose felt damp on the inside from her own breath. The windchill was bad enough to coat her eyelashes with frost if she removed her goggles for more than thirty seconds. Her ears got so cold; it gave her a headache. Rey didn’t even know this kind of _cold_ was possible.

Her skimmer bore the weight of everything she would need on the front, wrapped in several layers of weather-proof canvas. She stood, steering the contraption from the back. The roaring exhaust cut a trail across the snow right below her feet. Occasionally, she would hear a disconcerting rattle and feel a shudder that shook her from her boots to her teeth. Rey just had to take a deep breath and remind herself she had inspected both vehicles herself. Twice.

Poe, unrecognizable for how bundled up he was, had set the course. She flanked him on the right, taking care to neither pass him nor fall behind lest she lose him in the storm. She would catch his eye every so often and he would hold up a certain amount of fingers so she would know how far they still had yet to go.

His gloves had fingers, the lucky dog. Rey had never dealt with mittens before, but she was _not_ a fan. She could hardly do anything with her hands except grasp. Grasping was so limited.

By the time they spotted Vega, what little daylight they had left was waning.

“We gotta get this stuff inside.” Poe had to shout over the wind which whipped their scarves around their heads.

Rey discerned two structures in a shallow valley, half buried in snow. They were similar in size, and equidistant from where they idled.

“That’s the power station,” she shouted back, gesturing with her hand to the one with a wide, flattened dome sitting beside it. Her mitten tracked across the landscape, sweeping to land on the other structure. “So we head to that one.”

Poe, whose goggles were so iced over she couldn’t meet his eyes, responded with an affirmative nod.

“Right,” she barely heard him say.

“Right,” Rey repeated under her breath, hoping that saying it out loud would make it so.

They tore snow apart behind them, riding down the slight incline until they were just a few steps from a thick bulkhead door and a side storage garage. The storm had heaped a fresh pile of white stuff halfway up the entire thing. Poe hopped off his skimmer, landing thigh-deep into the fresh fall.

He cursed, taking high, laboured steps as he cut a path to the door. Rey wasted no time retrieving her tools and a portable spade, one edge sharp and the other serrated. Neither of them submitted to panic. He dug out one side of the bulkhead door with his hands and she dug out the other, making sure to not chop off his fingers as she cut through the ice.

When they were satisfied with how much they cleared, Poe braced himself, firmly planting his feet as he grabbed the steel latch with both hands. He pushed against it, his boots sliding on the snow until it released a sharp _hiss_ as the seal on the door was breached and the latch gave way.

He pushed the door open and wheeled his arm wildly around, beckoning Rey to hurry inside. They both shuffled in through the dark doorway. Poe pushed the door shut but didn’t seal it. Rey couldn’t tell what sort of room they were standing in, as it was pitch dark and silent save for their heavy breathing. She rifled around her tool bag for her torch. It didn’t want to light up upon flipping the switch, so Rey batted the side of it.

The torch hesitated before flickering to life. The beam of light caught newly disturbed dust hanging in the air and a thin layer of it covered almost every surface. Both of them followed the light as she explored the room. They were standing in a staging area, by the looks of things. There were six lockers against the wall and a long bench in the center.

“We need power,” said Poe, the cold slurring his words.

Rey blinked and nodded, letting out a sigh. Her breath thickly froze in the air before her eyes. It was still freezing in the bunker; they needed light and heat.

Her heavy clothing swished and snagged as she moved around, looking for the breaker box. If it was anything like the main base, she would find it near the doorway which led deeper into the interior.

“Here,” she said, when Poe had sidled up beside her, proffering the flashlight which he pointed at the closed box. He took it and opened the small hatch. There was one large, main power switch and several smaller switches for the outpost’s critical functions. The labels were worn and faded but still legible.

They both turned to one another at the same time and shared a synchronized shrug. Poe flipped the main switch.

There was nothing but silence and a general atmosphere of disappointment between them.

“ _Of course_ ,” Rey groaned, pulling her cap tight over her head and replacing her goggles as she made for the door.

“Wait up,” Poe said, fumbling to follow her. She turned and put her hand up.

“One of us has to stay here in case the doors automatically lock.”

Poe rolled his eyes. “You’re kidding.”

“I think it’s just safe to assume this is going to be as complicated as possible.”

“Then you stay here, _I’ll_ go.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, eyes half lidded and patience wearing thin. Poe’s nostrils flared.

“What do you mean--”

“We’re running out of time,” she said, voice crescendoing over his.

“Alright, well fine,” he said, conceding the point, although his tone made it abundantly clear he was skeptical about the arrangement.

“At least take these,” he pulled off his gloves and offered them to her. “It’s a bit nippy out there.”

He didn’t have to convince Rey to trade out her mittens. Finally, she could use her fingers! Well, for the most part. Poe’s gloves were a little large on her.

“And this.” Poe dug into his exterior breast pocket and procured two communicators. He tossed one her way. She caught it but barely, clapping it out of the air between her gloved hands. She nodded her thanks and made her way to the door.

“Be careful,” Poe said after her, making no effort to iron the nerves out of his voice.

Rey placed her goggles on her forehead and turned, doing her best impression of him, flashing a winning smile with a cheeky wink.

He relinquished an unconvinced chuckle before she trudged out into the storm.

The power station, as she had correctly judged it earlier, was, by her estimation, about fifty yards out. In the high wind and deep snow, it felt like fifty klicks. Rey hauled her tools over her shoulder and her spade in her right hand, as she took the long trip to the other building. With every step she cursed whatever architect thought it would be a good idea to place the power station so damn far away.

When she finally reached the door, her teeth were chattering and her toes were going numb but she didn’t have a partner to help her dig out the door this time. Pressing her lips into a thin line, she let her growing frustration out on the snow, kicking it all up with her spade and moving it out of the way.

When she was satisfied, she planted her feet firmly in the snow, just as Poe had done, and tried to push it open with all of her might. Even by the time she was screaming from the effort, the latch had not budged one bit.

There was no way she was going all the way back just to get the Commander to open a blasted door for her. She threw off her goggles - riled at how she couldn’t keep them from being caked with snow - and released a bestial growl, twisting her hands into frustrated claws until she remembered one crucial thing.

Rey was a force user, damn it! The intrepid Jedi laughed out loud with victorious glee when she remembered that small fact.

With a satisfied smile which verged on being maniacal, she narrowed her dark brown eyes and centered her energy as she communed with the Force, raising a hand at the door, and closing her eyes.

Like it was nothing, the latch loosed like butter. The _hiss_ followed.

She entertained a happy little giggle as she shuffled inside and down a narrow and steep set of grated stairs.

“I’m im. I made it to the power station,” she said, suppressing her shivers and speaking into the communicator.

“Sitrep.” His staticky reply came immediately.

“Uh,” she stalled, rubbing her forehead as she searched around the room with her spare torch. “I see a turbine - looks like the outpost is powered by wind. Console is here. I just have to flip a switch or two.”

“Right, just like earlier?”

“ _Please_ don’t jinx it,” said Rey, running her hands along the dusty series of switches and buttons in order to figure out the start sequence. Going with her gut, she picked a switch labeled ‘Auxiliary Power’.

The station came to life around her with a low hum as red emergency lights flickered to life along the edges of the room. On the other side of the wide viewport before her, a few spotlights lit up the inside of the power silo.

“Lights turnin’ on,” her communicator crackled.

“Good but we’re not through yet.” She pressed the button she was sure would open the lid on this thing. Sure enough, the wide dome she had spotted from the top of the hill split down the center. A gust blew snow in through the open hatch, rattling the viewport.

“Okay, now to raise the sail,” she murmured to herself, pressing and holding down the next button in the sequence. A mechanical braying sound shook the floor beneath her. Three sets of vertically aligned durasteel wind catchers ascended past her viewport and rose high into the violent storm.

The next four switches, she assumed by their labels, automatically unlocked four couplings that kept the turbine from spinning when not in service. For every switch she flicked, she heard a corresponding grinding sound down below. For every switch except, of course, the last one. A threatening yellow square of light flashed a warning at her. She used her bare fingers to wipe clean the dusty surface.

 _Obstruction, Obstruction, Obstruction_ , it repeated.

Rey’s head dropped in defeat. She closed her eyes and raised the communicator to her lips.

“You jinxed it.”

“What now?”

“Faulty coupler. I have to climb down there and loosen it myself.”

“Rey, wait-”

“Watch the door,” she ordered before shoving the communicator deep into the pocket of her jacket. She took her spade with her. It had proven useful to have it around so far.

The young Jedi entered through the door next to the viewport, crossing a precarious catwalk that followed the curved contour of the silo until she reached the ladder. She climbed down, cautiously making her way down every rung. The cold had seeped into her bones and it was making her sloppy.

When she finally jumped down off the last rung, she surveyed the room and found the failed coupling immediately. The problem was evident, it was rusted and failed to open completely. She gave pause before trying to jam it open. If she had to make an educated guess, she would say she was standing right on top of where the turbine spun and processed the kinetic energy into power. The tall pillar that was meant to spin at high speeds was struggling against the last coupler. The entire platform shook and rattled with the fury of the storm.

As long as she stayed next to the wall, she shouldn’t be affected by the turning portion.

She squatted next to the claw-like coupler, and pulled on it with her hands, to test the resistance. Her fingers were too fat to get a grip in between the tight space, so she shed Poe’s gloves, her hands so numb it didn’t matter, anyway. Rey pulled as hard as she could. It didn’t budge.

She shoved the tip of her spade into the jammed coupler, using it as a lever. It gave a little, shrieking and grinding, but only a fraction.

“Use the Force, Rey,” she murmured to herself, shaking her head. She was already feeling so exhausted but she didn’t have any other choice.

Once again, she aligned her focus, twining her energy with the fabric of the universe. Her eyebrows furrowed and twitched. A shrill, screech pierced the air as the rusty coupler fought to stay closed, as it had for decades. The power of the Force won out in the end. As the coupler came open, the inner part of the platform started to turn with the pillar. She didn’t have the spirit to enjoy her victory this time.

“It’s done,” Rey said when she returned to the console room. She was also beginning to understand why the power station was so far from the main outpost. All that violent spinning turned out to be _really_ loud.

“You sound exhausted. Are you okay?”

“I’m about to be fantastic.” She only had one more step to follow before she could return. Only one big, obnoxious switch remained, right in the center of the console. She pushed it up with a little effort and one by one the overhead lights flickered on. The radiators hissed to life.

“Hey Poe,” she said, a serene feeling coming over her, “try that main breaker switch for me again, will you?”

There was a pause and then a crow of triumph broadcast over her communicator.

“You did it! The heat is coming on and-” He interrupted himself with an astonished snort. “Way to go, Rey.”

“I’m heading back.”

“Hurry, will you? If you can’t tell, you’ve been stressing me out.”

A tired smile crossed her face and she leaned against the console, pressing the communicator to her forehead. Rey nodded.

“I will.”

The long slog back was made much easier, knowing that the worst was over. At least for the day. And she made certain not to forget her tools or her trusty spade.

Poe was waiting with the door open. He bounded through the deep snow, nearly keeling over to retrieve her. Rey could see that the skimmers had been stowed away in storage. She slung one arm around his neck and let him guide her into the staging room.

“Come on, Sunshine, let’s get you indoors.”

He helped her onto one of the benches so she could take a load off. As the door sealed shut, Rey was grateful to get the wind out of her ears. She laid all the way back on the bench letting her arms rest above her head to better catch her breath. She turned her head to see that Poe had already brought both of their packs inside.

The pilot plopped down next to her, hunched over, elbows resting on his knees. He glanced down at her.

“You gonna make it?”

She shook her head and swallowed, grimacing at how dry her throat felt.

“Not sure yet. Get back to you on that.”

“You shouldn’t have gone alone.” Poe was sounding a little testy.

“You had to stay-”

“And watch the doors, I know,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Only the doors didn’t do a damn thing!”

Rey didn’t have much energy to spare, but she was more than willing to go to verbal blows with Poe over this. If there was one thing she could guarantee, it was that she was far more stubborn than him.

However, before she started to argue with him, she saw how upset he was. It was plain in his eyes, his frown, and the deepening line between his brows. She bit her tongue. Poe was a good commander. He cared about his people. She was one of his people.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t try to do everything by myself.”

He didn’t reply but he seemed satisfied, if not a little embarrassed that he had raised his voice.

Arms floppy and weak, it took some effort to pull his gloves off of her hands. “Here. Thanks for these.”

His fingers brushed over top of hers.

“Stars, Rey,” he pressed a hand over hers, “your hands are freezing.” He applied a little pressure and she hissed. Before she could snatch her hand away, he held her by the wrist.

“What happened here?” he said, examining her knuckles. She knit her brow and shook her head. Blood had frozen to the knuckles on her hand.

“I guess I scraped it. I don’t remember _when_ but it- it doesn’t hurt.” He tsked, doubting her, and released her hand.

“Here, sit up, I have just the thing.” He threw one leg over the bench to straddle it, and started sifting through his canvas bag. It took no small effort for her to sit up straight, but when she had, he was spinning the cap off of his thermos and pouring a steaming hot cup of caf for her.

Rey scrunched her nose at the offered cup. “I don’t like that stuff,” she mumbled. He gave her a lopsided smirk.

“I’ll drink it, you just hold it.” And so she did, enjoying the how the warmth from the cup transferred to her fingers.

“By accepting that cup you have just agreed to letting _me_ do the next really crummy job that comes up,” he said, pointing to her hands. “You have no choice.”

She shrugged, taking sudden interest in the dark brown liquid where it bubbled around the edges.

“I just thought- you know since I got us into this…”

“That’s one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard. C’mon, Rey,” he said, and she knew every word to be true. Rey slowly met his gaze as he called her to account. When she finally did, he didn’t look upset. Just bewildered. Maybe a little impressed at her mulishness.

“We’re a team from now on, okay? Doesn’t matter who got who into what.” Poe extended his arm and gave his hand for her to shake. She relented with her undamaged hand.

“Team.”

This seemed to make him happy.

“Now let’s just hope tomorrow isn’t as _fun_ as today was,” Poe said, gingerly taking the cup from her hand. He took a cautious swig, sighing with delight as the elixir warmed him.

“You’re gonna jinx it,” Rey said, determined to have the last word. “Again.”

Poe flashed his signature devil-may-care smirk, as if to say _you’re welcome_ and placed the cup back in her waiting hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thats my secret captain
> 
> my mom is my beta reader


	3. Warm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warm

Poe awoke the next morning in the old outpost bunk room. High toward the ceiling, a thin shaft of sunlight filtered in through one utilitarian horizontal viewport.

Disoriented, disheveled, and bleary-eyed, Poe strained to roll over. His thoughts went first to Rey. He looked over to where she had laid out her bed roll in the opposite corner. He blinked hard twice, trying to get his vision to focus, and scrunched his nose as if it might help. As his eyesight cleared, he saw there was no Rey to be found. Her blanket had been thrown aside and all that remained was a small pile of books and her lantern.

The starpilot cocked his head and tried not to think about what new trouble she could possibly be up to. And so early in the morning.

He groaned and sat up to slouch, putting a hand up to protect his eyes from the obtrusive sunshine. Struggling to get his legs under him, he made a noise of discomfort.

Standing on the back of a skimmer all day had done one hell of a number on his body. The fact there were no real beds in the outpost  - just four empty, steel bed frames - also didn’t help. They both decided the floor was their only option. The soft mats and blankets they brought were the best they had.

He finally stood up, rubbing his eyes and taking stiff steps out of the bunk room and into the common area.

“Rey,” he said, his voice gravelly from sleep. There was no response. He scanned the adjoining rooms which made up the outpost’s living quarter. No Rey in the galley, no Rey in the dining area, and no Rey by the card table.

“Okay,” he murmured to himself, his blood pressure steadily rising as he backtracked into the bunks, back complaining as he bent over to pick up the snow pants he had discarded the night before. Poe pulled them on over his thermals one leg at a time, nearly toppling over once or twice.

He just had a conversation with her last night regarding things like this. Things like disappearing without saying a word. Up the steep stairway he went, making for the staging area, and carrying his giant boots with him. They hit the floor with a _thud_ and he stepped into them, kicking his toes on the floor and not bothering to lace up. The same went for his jacket, on but not zipped.

The door creaked open and a chill grazed his cheeks. The glittering snow was blinding to him as he peered out of the door. A sharp, radiating pain rumbled through his skull, starting at the eyes, because it was all just so damn bright. Yesterday’s storm had abated during the night. He could see Rey’s fresh footprints tracking here and there around the perimeter of the outpost. One skimmer sat some distance from the entrance, having been apparently removed from the garage. He raised an arch eyebrow.

Poe took a few hesitant steps out into the cold morning. The wind turbine was high, spinning steadily. He could see it from where he stood. Up there, the wind was still strong. On the ground, Poe found the breeze to be bearable.

“Good morning!”

He looked left and right, baffled that she was nowhere in sight.

“Up here,” she said, humor in her voice.

Poe followed the sound, visoring his eyes with his hand and squinting. Rey waved down at him, her feet braced against the side of the communications tower, about one story above him.

“Mornin’,” he croaked. Was it still morning. He wasn’t certain, but he might have heard her laughing at him. She maneuvered on her rope like it was second nature, flying down to him with only one push off of the side of the building, her rope zipping through the catch on her belt.

Her boots crunched onto the iced over layer of snow as she hopped down. She pulled her goggles up onto her forehead.

“Time is it?” Poe said, still not totally awake.

“Nearly noon.”

“Sheesh,” he said, passing a hand over his face, “why didn’t you wake me up?”

Rey shot him a teasing look. “I was up at dawn, but you looked so peaceful I just couldn’t bring myself to disturb you.”

“Alright, alright,” he said, waving her off. She grinned, crinkling her freckled nose.

“Got a few fasteners into the side of this thing. Should be easy to get up and down so we can check out the receiver,” Rey said, gesturing to the ropes which swayed in the breeze.

“You free climbed that?”

She nodded, exuberantly.

He frowned, closing his eyes and rubbing his stubble, which was starting to come in longer than he liked. Poe preferred a solid two millimeters of handsome scruff, anything beyond that crossed into space-vagabond territory.

“You’re going to go snowblind without your goggles,” Rey said, matter-of-factly.

“Don’t change the subject. We just talked about this,” he said, maintaining patience. “ _I_ was going to do the next crummy job.”

Her expression was one of genuine puzzlement. Rey shook her head at him and smiled like he was a talking crazy.

“This wasn’t crummy,” she said, because it was _oh so obvious_ . “This was- I did this for _fun_.”

Was she a reincarnated woolamander? He pursed his lips and appraised her skeptically. It was easy to forget Rey had a life before the rebellion. A life spent scaling the insides of treacherous old star destroyers.

“Okay,” he said willing himself to let it go.

“Okay?” Rey asked.

“I believe you.”

“Good,” she said, pointing an accusing finger-gun at him and giving him a serious look, “because I meant what I said last night.”

Poe found her earnestness painfully endearing and couldn’t fight his smirk.

“We’re a team,” she repeated the words from last night, replacing her goggles over her eyes, “and sometimes you let your teammate sleep in because he seems like he really needs it.”

Rey reached up and pat him on top of his curly head in a gesture which was both playful and provoking. He gave her a rueful look and she retracted her hand before he could snap it up and tackle her into the snow.

Satisfied that she had sufficiently pushed her luck, Rey started climbing her way back up the tower. “Go brew yourself some caf,” she shouted down at him, “and get ready. I’m going to get this panel open up here but when I’m done, I want to show you something.”

_There was more?_

She had got more accomplished in one morning than he had on the entire expedition. He made a mental note of the fact that Rey was undoubtedly a morning person

Poe didn’t bother asking her aloud what she wanted to show him. He wasn’t ready to hear it. Not before he had that caf. Considering the part of her brain that comprehends danger seemed to be broken, he assumed she was going to present him with some massive beast she had single-handedly slain or something equally absurd.

There was no use in stressing out over what you can’t control. That was his most important mantra as commander. For now, he just wanted to grab a shower.

* * *

“Well?” Rey asked expectantly.

“Well, what?”

“Isn’t it incredible?”

Poe tracked his eyes up the stunning blue outcropping of cracked ice as tall as ten Black Ones stacked on top of each other.

“Yeah,” he hesitated, “it’s a sight, alright.” But worth the five or so klick trip from the outpost? It remained to be seen.

Rey approached the bottom of the natural glacier wall, turning on the lamp she had brought along. Poe dwelt on the erratic nature of the lone glacier. He wondered how it got there, when it formed, and why. Why when the tundra of this planet had barely any dimension at all? No wonder Rey’s attention was called to it.

“You comin’?” she said, hunched over and proceeding to wedge herself into one of the larger cracks in the formation.

“In there?” he asked. She nodded. The pilot crossed his arms.

“I’m not goin’ in there.”

“Well, hey,” she said shrugging and disappearing into the crevice, “if you’re scared, I get it.”

He glared after her and sighed, defeated. Poe suspected that Rose was rubbing off on her, too. He squared his shoulders and pushed away every reason he had not to enter a strange, uncharted cave, trudging after her for his pride’s sake.

They both proceeded down the long passage, huddling so as not to bump their heads, their coats catching on the jagged ice wall. An acrid scent grew thicker and thicker the deeper in they went. Poe could still see some light from where they entered but it was dimming fast. He would have to trust Rey.

“Through here,” she whispered, squatting low to crawl under a low obstruction. In the light of her lamp, Poe could see vapor filtering out from the other side. He followed suit, trying not to make any noises of complaint as his backache reminded him that he wasn’t so young anymore.

On the other side, the cave opened up, blasting his face with thick, humid warmth and revealing a dreamlike watercolor of blue and white and every shade in between. Rey set her lantern down, casting dramatic shadows across the crystal interior. He kicked the ground. Solid stone.

“Well?” Rey asked, eyes dancing.

“It’s unbelievable.”

“It’s _warm,_ ” she added. He agreed, laughing breathlessly at the wonder of it.

Poe ran his hands along the walls, watching the ice glimmer like mother of pearl as it caught the light of her lantern until the sound of rustling drew his attention to his companion.

“What are you doing?” he said, turning his head away and chopping his hand up to shield his eyes. Rey was bent over, trying to free herself from her thermal shirt which was caught on her signature triple bun. Her puffy snow pants were bunched around her ankles, leaving her clad only in her tight gray leggings.

“Trying to take this...stupid thing off,” she growled, still wrestling with the stretchy material, peeling her undershirt away from the thermal layer so they didn’t both fly off.

“I noticed that, but _why_ ?” If he accidentally saw Rey in her underwear, Finn would _kill_ him.

“There we go,” she said, finally extricated from her thermal. She plopped down onto the ground near her lantern, legs crossed, pants abandoned.

“Oh relax, I’ve got a shirt on.”

Poe stole a careful glance, feeling sheepish. Rey watched him expectantly. His jacket _was_ starting to feel a little stifling in the wet heat. Vapor seeped from cracks in the floor and his hair was starting to stick to the back of his neck.

He shuffled over to her, the hook-and-pile fastener on his jacket tearing open as he sloughed off the heavy layer. Poe had an easier time than Rey taking off his thermal layer, leaving on his breathable linen. He carefully lowered himself down to sit next to her.

“How did you find this place?” Poe asked, staring up at the ceiling, watching streams of water run down the walls and drip around the edges of their little nook.

“I was up before dawn and restless. Thought I’d explore the area.”

“Before dawn? In that case, I’m glad you didn’t wake me,” he said, half-jesting, half-relieved.

He wore an appreciative frown, sizing Rey up. “I can’t say I’m not impressed. Most people don’t find a skinny crack in a glacier and say, ‘yeah, I’m gettin’ in that.’ So I’ve really gotta hand it to you.”

Rey rolled her eyes and him.

“No, really, this is something else, Rey.”

Was it the heat or was she blushing?

“There are natural springs below. I read about them in one of the manuals back at base,” Rey said, staring, enchanted, into the yellow lantern. “They’re rare, so we’re lucky to have found one.”

She looked into his eyes, and he just blinked, unsure of what to say.

“Lucky,” he repeated. For the first time, it occurred to Poe just how alone _together_ they were. Rey bit her lip, looking eagerly at him.

“What’s that?”

“What’s what?” Poe said, looking down at himself to make sure he didn’t have some huge spider on him or something.

She snorted at him as he patted down his chest. Then, she scooted herself right up next to him. Their knees touched and Poe’s heart rate shot up.

Definitely the heat, he told himself.

“ _This,_ ” Rey specified, reaching toward him until her fingers were reverently cradling the ring that never left the chain around his neck. He swallowed thickly watching her examine it with a curious gaze.

Rey let the unadorned band drop back onto his collar, wrapping her arms around her drawn up knees, awaiting story-time.

Poe hung his head, plucking at the ring himself as he had done hundreds of times.

“It was my mother’s,” he said, at last, the sweetness of her memory in his voice.

“She left it to you.”

“She- well, she died when I was eight. I’ve just always kept it with me, like this.”

Rey was an open book, as ever, wearing her feelings right there on her face.

“It was a long time ago,” he said by rote.

Rey placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “You honor her memory.”

He nodded, meeting her gaze, dwelling for a moment on how beautifully the amber glow from the lantern painted her cheeks. Her irises cast back and forth between his, like she might miss something if she didn’t take everything in. Poe felt overwhelmed by being _seen_ the way she was seeing him now, but he couldn’t bring himself to flee from the feeling.

“And I had hoped maybe one day I could,” his words got caught so he cleared his throat and tried again, flattening the sentiment out of his voice. “Maybe one day I could give it to someone. Someone who means a lot to me.”

Her expression was unreadable. Pensive or troubled or pitying. Poe couldn’t tell and the uncertainty made him uncomfortable so he did what he did best during moments like these.

“I know it's…” he scratched his ear with his thumb and shook his head, “it’s _crazy_ how I am this damned romantic and still single.”

Rey, who had been leaning in, entranced, rocked back to lean against the wall. She looked up and sighed.

“Amazing,” she said, smirking at the ceiling, “you completely ruined the moment.”

“Moment? What moment?” He called after she stood and collected her jacket, “Were we?”

"C'mon, flyboy," Rey said tossing her head toward the entrance as she pulled on her coat, "we have a job to do."

"Yeah, comin'." Poe said, hauling himself to his feet. He fiddled with his ring and murmured, perplexed, “we _were_ having a moment, weren't we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks (o v o) !


End file.
